PRECIOUS-Gold near 7-wk low as safe-haven demand fades after French election

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

May 9 (Reuters) - Gold inched up early on Tuesday as Asian
stocks eased, but was sitting near a seven-week low hit in the
previous session as Emmanuel Macron's victory in French
elections dampened the safe-haven appeal of the metal.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,227.08 per ounce
as of 0054 GMT, after touching a seven-week low of 1,224.86 in
the previous session.
* U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,227.10 an
ounce.
* Asian stock markets were subdued on Tuesday, taking their
cue from a flat Wall Street, as investors searched for the next
catalyst following France's presidential election.
* MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
slipped 0.2 percent early on Tuesday.
* Investor sentiment in the euro zone hit its highest level
in almost a decade in May, improving more than expected thanks
to a strong assessment of the current economic situation and
expectations that political uncertainty will diminish.
* The U.S. economy's weak performance at the start of the
year should slow Federal Reserve plans for further rate
increases, now broadly expected to resume at the central bank's
June meeting, St. Louis Federal Reserve bank president James
Bullard said on Monday.
* Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest
gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.14 percent to 851.89
tonnes on Monday.
* India's gold imports in April more than doubled from a
year ago to 75 tonnes on strong demand during a festival that
prompts purchases and as jewellers stocked up ahead of a new
national sales tax, provisional data from consultancy GFMS
showed.
* The London Bullion Market Association will publish details
of physical gold and silver holdings in London vaults from
summer 2017, it said in a statement on Monday.
* Africa's biggest gold miner AngloGold Ashanti
reported a 16 percent drop in quarterly core profit on Monday
hit by a weak showing at its South African operations.
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0600 Germany Industrial output March
0600 Germany Trade data March
1000 U.S. NFIB business optimism April
1400 U.S. Wholesale sales March
(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard
Pullin)